The Supreme Court yesterday heard
a case about whether the US census can include a question on
whether the person is a citizen, a question placed there by Wilbur
Ross for the Trump administration. They’ve already lost this case in
three
federal courts but now it’s going to the Supreme Court. Despite
the politics, there’s some important non-political arguments here that
matter and aren’t being well reported. Let me highlight them.

The goal of the decennial census is an accurate count of
all people. The basis of the Census comes from Article 1
Section 2 of the Constitution as amended by the
14th Amendment. The key phrase here is "counting the whole
number of persons in each State". Not counting just citizens. In
particular, representatives to the House are apportioned based on the
entire population of each state, not just the population of
citizens.

The accuracy of the count matters. It directly
affects the number of House of Representatives seats and also
Electoral College votes. The count also greatly
influences funding apportionment, social security, etc. It’s not
just statistical data for planning purposes, it is the count of record
for all sorts of legislative matters.

The citizenship question would result in an
undercount. The problem with the citizenship question
is it will cause a lot of non-citizens to not answer the census and
thus not be counted. It’s not hard to imagine why someone who is
living here illegally would not want to disclose that fact to a
federal officer, particularly now. But the citizenship question also
discourages people who are here legally. Don’t take my word for it:
the Census’
Chief Scientist John Abowd said "Three distinct analyses
support the conclusion of an adverse impact on self-response and, as a
result, on the accuracy and quality of the 2020 Census."

We know the citizenship question will result in an
undercount because of the ACS’ experience with the
question. They have detailed estimates of how many people don’t
answer the census at all, don’t answer the citizenship question, or
quit the survey right where the citizenship question is asked.
Abowd’s memo about this is long (100MB
PDF), here’s a
shorter relevant excerpt. Broadly speaking there’s two separate
concerns; that the census taker doesn’t answer the one citizenship
question, or that they don’t answer the whole census because of the
presence of that one citizenship question. There’s corroborating
studies from outside Census that also show the question will
result in a significant undercount.

The decennial census has to be an exact count.
Thanks to a
1999 Supreme Court decision the Census data used for apportionment
must be an actual head count. No form of sampling or extrapolation is
allowed, despite the fact that would result in a number closer to the
true count. That means there’s no way to correct a census flawed
with an undercount from the citizenship question.

I’ve tried to present politically neutral arguments above. How do
we most accurately get an exact count of people in the US? By not
adding a new question about citizenship. But of course the
politics of the census can’t be ignored. The Census
estimates 6.5M
people may be undercounted because of this question, that’s
nearly 2% of the US population. The people being undercounted tend to
be Hispanic and immigrants and also tend to be pro-Democrat. Those
people will be denied representation in the House and those states
will be underfunded.

It’s not an accident that this question the Republican
administration wants to ask just happens to help
Republicans. It’s there because Steve Bannon and Kris Kobach asked
Wilbur Ross to put it there, a fact that Ross apparently forgot
about in earlier testimony. Ross tried to claim
the Justice Department asked him to add the question but it turns out
they only asked because
Ross requested they ask him. The White House is now refusing
to cooperate with a congressional investigation into how the
question came to be on the census in the first place. There’s a detailed
timeline of the political process. It’s gone much faster than
the usual
multi-year process for questions to carefully be added to the
Census.

The Census Bureau is a competent, careful, non-partisan government
agency. It’s a shame to see their work corrupted.

I have the support of the police, the support of the
military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough
people, but they don’t play it tough until they go to a certain
point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.

Update: Trump tweeted a link to his
interview, then
deleted it
after someone inspired by him murdered 49 people in New Zealand.

I’ve learned to make a simple Korean stew that’s delicious and
foolproof. Doenjang Jjigae (된장찌개) is a homey stew made with a
flavor of fermented soybean paste, something like miso only more
rustic and spicy. Serve it over rice with some banchan (side-dishes)
and you have a simple reliable meal. There’s a zillion different
recipes online. Maangchi’s
recipe is good or see
here for a second opinion.

The core flavor comes from the broth made from doenjang
paste dissolved in water. The broth is easy since the flavor comes
from a pre-prepared product. You can find doenjang in Asian groceries
or at a markup on Amazon.

Garlic and chile is added to the broth for heat and flavor. Korean
ground red chile is best (Amazon) or you
can use most anything; red pepper flakes, cayenne, maybe some hot
paprika for a bit of smoke. The broth can also be upgraded by starting
with anchovy stock instead of plain water.

Once you have the
broth you add the rest. Common vegetables include zucchini, daikon or
mu,
onion, fresh chiles, potato. Proteins include tofu, shrimp, clams, or
my favorite: fatty pork. You can pretty much just boil everything
together, although if you’re using pork you should render the fat
first in the pot before making the broth.

I serve it in a bowl over short grain rice with whatever side dishes I
can muster. A full banchan spread is a ridiculous amount of work. But
I almost always have a jar of kimchi on hand. These marinated
mushrooms are also super easy to make and delicious.

Mexico City is famous right now for its food culture. From the
temples of fine dining like Pujol
to casual street tacos people love to eat well in CDMX. I made
thorough notes on all the places we ate on a short trip. My favorite
places were Carmela y Sal, Corazón de Maguey, and Taqueria
Califa.

Cafe Tacuba for
lunch. Our tour guide suggested this as something near the Cathedral.
I really liked it, a funky throwback cafe with a nearly ossified
traditional Mexican menu. Honestly the service was a bit off and slow,
but that was offset by the place being so retro and comfortable. I
liked my chile rellenos quite a bit although I would have traded one
of the two enormous chiles for a more complex sauce. Ken’s
enchiladas tapatías were good.

Carmela y Sal for dinner.
We told some of the hotel staff we were going here and they were all
very excited; apparently chef Gabriela Lugo has made quite an
impression in town. Us too, this felt like the exciting, trendy, yet
comfortable kind of place that everyone says Mexico City is great for.
The highlight dish for us was the "liar’s tostadas", a
vegan preparation of coconut doctored up to taste like crab pork.
Delicious on their own merits even without the hilarious cooking
trick. My Poc Chuc was also fantastic, as was Ken’s creamy
canneloni. Great wine list too. This restaurant was where we figured
out Mexican portions are huge, we ordered way too much food. As dining
mistakes go that’s not so bad.

Corazón de Maguey. Our
tour guide took us here for a mezcal tasting; they are serious about
mezcal here. Which was great, it’s interesting to taste a bunch of
mezcals against each other. Nice restaurant too, good basic Mexican
vibe with a leaning towards Oaxacan cuisine. I loved the Coyoacán
neighborhood this is located in, the restaurant is right on the lively
main park / square that defines the neighborhood.

Capital
Grille. We decided we might want some familiar American food one
night, and who doesn’t like a good steak? They delivered well here,
although other than a couple of Mexican cocktails we could just as
easily have been in Duluth or Miami or Toronto. Was nearly empty on
Saturday night other than a lunch party that’d started 7 hours
before; I suspect this is a businessman’s dinner kind of place. If
you want a US steak at US prices go here, otherwise go somewhere
Mexican!

Taqueria Califa. Casual and
fast tacos but in a nice well lit place with table service. Certainly
a good choice for gringos who want street food but are nervous about
it. My favorite here was the classic tacos al pastor; with fresh
onion, cilantro, and pineapple setting off the roast pork so well.
Great place for a quick snack or casual full meal.

Porfirios. Dinner at a
hilariously trendy / fancy restaurant. I think every single table had
at least one tableside preparation, whether molcajete or something set
on fire or the lady wheeling around a street corn sign. Great looking
grilled steaks and shrimp, but we stuck with simpler chiles rellenos
(good) and enchiladas mole (too sweet). This seems to be a place
wealthy locals go to celebrate. The lighting in the restaurant is
tragic though; so dark all the waiters have flashlights handy for
reading menus but then also a super bright TV in the bar annoying
everyone having dinner. On the balance I think the theater of it
overcame the quality of the food. It was fine, but I wouldn’t go
back.

Restaurante
Meztli. Not in CDMX but rather right next to the pyramids at
Teotihuacán, a good spot for thirsty tourists. Margaritas,
micheladas, good guacamole and enchiladas. I can’t say it’s
anything special but for the middle of a tourist zone it was quite
good. The owner was super friendly, too.

Zanaya
restaurant at the Four Seasons. Traditional Mexican, not great. Dinner
felt more like an obligatory hotel restaurant than a place someone was
running with love. Absolutely beautiful outdoor patio in the hotel’s
magnificent garden courtyard. Sadly we had to sit inside which is not
nearly as nice, despite the cool retro tile. Good cocktail list but
the food seemed a bit ordinary, certainly not elevated. Definitely
would not make a trip to dine here. (Breakfast here was good, but is a
whole different thing.)

For my birthday this year we visited Mexico City in early March. It
was great! I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone who’s
interested in going to a big city that’s vibrant and has a long
great cultural history. Also relatively inexpensive for American
wallets. We went for four days and that was a good taste of the city.
But there’s so much to do and enjoy I could see spending much
longer, particularly if you start getting into neighborhoods and
enjoying daily life.

I have to confess this trip was a bit of an education for me. I
grew up in Houston with severe prejudice, so much that
"Mexican" sounds like a slur to me, not a description of
nationality. I think I’ve grown past the outright bigotry but my
brief tourist jaunts across the border and on the coast didn’t
really cure me of the idea that Mexico was somehow lesser. Mexico City
is a whole different thing, a sophisticated international city
bustling with life and excitement. Sure some taxis will rip you off
and as a visitor you probably shouldn’t drink the tap water. But
it’s a home to 21M people, fully modern, and full of excitement and
modern culture and history and great food. Also people seemed very
friendly, relaxed, and welcoming. I’m looking forward to going
back.

We stayed at the Four
Seasons which treated us very well. This hotel’s rooms all front
on an enormous central courtyard so it’s quiet and beautiful.
Service was excellent. Didn’t love their casual Mexican restaurant
for dinner although breakfasts were great.

We booked this trip with a tour guide and driver via Journey Mexico for four full
days. It was great; we saw a lot more than we would have on our own
and understood more about what we saw. It was also exhausting and I
think next time we’ll probably plan half days, stop at lunch. It’s
an expensive way to travel but you can get a lot of the same value by
hiring tour guides day by day and taking Uber everywhere. Here’s
what we did:

Day 1: City Centre. The Templo Mayor
museum, the Diego Garcia mural at the
National Palace, and a quick visit to the
San Juan Market. (We were supposed to see the Cathedral and the Palacio
de Bellas Artes too, but skipped them). The museum offered us a
remarkable view of historical Mexico City, the way the new city was
built right on top of the old Aztec temple center. And the Diego
Garcia mural is phenomenal, you can get something of a view
of it here.
I wish we’d spent more time just walking around the streets and less
at the Templo Mayor, but we were moving slow. Fun retro lunch at Cafe Tacuba.

Day 2: Rivera/Kahlo/Trotsky and Coyoacán. The highlight here was
visiting the Casa
Azul, a privately run museum about Frida Kahlo at her home. The
exhibitions were quite good and personal. Huge line to get in, even
with advance tickets. We also visited the Rivera and Kahlo
studio which was interesting architecturally but the exhibits are
not so exciting. OTOH the Trotsky
museum was fascinating; I had no idea Trotsky lived in exile in
Mexico City and met a dismal end with an ice axe stuck in his head by
a Soviet assassin. All these sites are near each other in the southern
part of the city in the absolutely charming Coyoacán
neighborhood where we had a great lunch and mezcal tasting at the Corazón de Maguey.

Day 3: Chapultepec
Castle and the Anthropology
Museum. The castle is a walk up a big hill but the views and
exhibits are worth the effort. A preserved vestige of Hapsburg and
French meddling in Mexican politics, the brief-lived Emperor of
Mexico. Unfortunately that left us without enough energy for the
anthropology museum, one of the best in the world and the very best
for Mesoamerican history. I want to go back to Mexico City just to
spend a couple of days slowly working through its treasures. For lunch
I had the best tacos al pastor of my life at Taqueria Califa.

Day 4: Teotihuacan. An
hour drive NE of the city, Teotihuacan is an enormous archaeological
site of a city that lived from 150 BC to 600 AD. At its height it had
some 200,000 residents, making it one of the largest cities in the
world. It’s totally worth the drive to visit, particularly to see
the reconstruction of the 2.5 mile long Avenue of the Dead and the
scale of the Pyramids and Temples built alongside it. There’s also a
lot of beautifully preserved original carving and painting on-site to
see and a small museum of artifacts. If you want some companion
reading this
recent museum exhibition catalog is very up to date and has both
great text and photographs. Lunch was nearby at the surprisingly good
Restaurante
Meztli.

In the evenings we went out mostly to fancy restaurants. See my
companion blog post for more, but our favorite was Carmela y Sal. Our trip was a
nice mix of ancient history and recent. If I had to pick three
highlights off the list, I’d say the Diego Garcia mural, the Casa
Azul, and the anthropology museum. What I wish we’d done more of was
just getting into the town, walking around and enjoying neighborhoods
and cafes. But that takes more time and local knowledge (not to
mention language) than we had this first visit. But I’m sure Mexico
City is a place I will happily return to, enjoy and experience
more.

I ruined Christmas in 1979 with an Atari 2600 gift. I was 7 years
old.

The Atari was all I wanted. I started asking for one around
Hallowe’en. My single Mom couldn’t possibly afford it. We
weren’t poor, but all the money we had went to mortgage and school
and we never had much extra for fun stuff. She told me there was no
way she could buy it. It was $200, or about $800 in today’s dollars,
and by that age I already understood what that meant.

Early December my sister, my older should-have-been-wiser sister,
tipped me off that our mother had bought me the Atari. That it would
be my Christmas present. I didn’t believe her, so she told me where
it was hidden. In a gross dusty back closet in the garage. So when Mom
wasn’t home I snuck into the closet and very, very carefully peeked
and there was the Atari under some musty old polyester blanket.

I kept the secret for about three days. But I couldn’t contain
myself. It was already bought and in the house! Even if Christmas was
weeks away, surely I could go ahead and have it now and play it now?
What would be the harm? So by my 7 year old logic I told my Mom I knew
about the present. And informed her that since I knew about it, she
might as well give it to me right then.

That was the second time I can remember my mother outright crying.
The first time was two years earlier, when my father died. The third
time was a few years later when I was 12 and so upset I told her I
hated her and she’d ruined my life and honestly meant it in the
moment.

But there in early December 1979 she burst into tears of anger and
frustration because her big Christmas plan was ruined. She was so, so
mad at me. Of course I couldn’t have my present. In fact since I’d
been so naughty I was getting no present at all. She was going to
return the Atari and give me nothing.

Sure enough, I had no presents under the tree. A day or two before
Christmas she relented, a couple of small boxes appeared. I tearfully
asked what had happened to the Atari. "It’s gone. I got you
some underwear because, well, you need underwear anyway. You can open
it on Christmas Day". I was no longer in a rush.

I felt so terrible. I knew how happy my mother was to have been
able to buy that gift for me, how much it must have cost to have saved
the money aside to be able to afford it. And then all that generosity
and joy was ruined because I peeked at my presents.

So it was a pretty glum Christmas morning. I mean we had our
stockings (with an orange in the toe), and candy, and nuts. There were
a few boxes under the tree for me. I’d picked out my presents for
everyone and they were ready to give, but I didn’t get much joy from
that. I was just sad for my lost Atari.

Finally it came time to open presents. And my Mom handed me a small
box, a cube, and told me to open it first. Inside was an Atari 2600
joystick! That confused the heck out of me. Then I opened the second
box and it was a Combat game cartridge. Then another joystick, and an
RF adapter, and then finally my mother took pity on me and hauled the
last box out from where it’d been hidden; the Atari console itself,
wrapped separately to hide what it was.

One of the conveniences of Berlin city life is the Späti or
Spätkauf, the local convenience store. It’s like your corner bodega
in New York, a little market that sells essentials and is nearby and
open late. Beer, newspapers, fresh baked goods, condoms, a couple of
cooked meals, some minimal groceries. There’s one on nearly every
block.

It’s particularly useful in Germany because laws and customs
strictly limit how late stores can be open. For instance almost no one
is open on Sundays, including grocery stores, without special
exceptions. But somehow the neighborhood Späti is open every day,
often 6am to 11pm or some even longer. The name literally means "late store".

In nice weather the Späti often have a couple of tables outside.
And there’s no rule against drinking beer outside so they become a
low cost alternative to going to a bar. There’s even Späticrawls
where people spend the evening wandering between their favorite
Spätis drinking beer on the way.

One other handy thing about the Späti, they often double as a
formal package receiving service. My local has a deal with Hermes
where a package can be delivered to them and they’ll hold it for a
week. Fairly serious system for pickups too, an ID check and a
signature and a record made. Amazon is happy to deliver to these so
it’s easy to buy things from them in Berlin.

I’ve had a mantra since Trump was elected: "it is going to
keep getting worse". It’s depressing but I find being clear
helps bolster me for the upcoming pain. There is no realistic scenario
where the next two years in America are going to go better
politically.

The midterms were a success for the Democrats. They decisively took
the House. A victory, hooray! But what does that victory get us? Very
little. At best, it slows down the horrible deluge of atrocities that
are still coming.

Trump will remain President. There’s no likely path to an actual
impeachment; even if Mueller has clear evidence of treason the
Republicans in the Senate will protect Trump. And if they decide to
get rid of Trump the result would be President Pence. That may be less
stupid and crazy but Pence is also a bad and dangerous politician. And
it is the entire Republican party that is the problem, not just Trump,
and they will remain in power.

The best outcome from these midterms is the Democrats will use the
investigatory powers of the House to unearth some of the Trump
Administration’s crimes and malfeasance. (There’s an active
debate on how aggressive the Democrats want to be.) A little
truth-and-reconciliation would help things. Unearth the Trump
Organization’s financial double dealings that corrupt the
presidency. Get to the bottom of how our country stole thousands of
children from their parents at the border and then lost several
hundred of them, permanently orphaning the kids. Expose the Republican
strategy of denying people voting rights to win elections. A little
fresh air will feel good but it won’t actually change anything. We
are way, way beyond where appeals to truth or decency matter.

Meantime, the Republicans will continue their campaign of
vandalism. They will continue to undermine Obamacare. They will
continue to demonize immigrants in a rank display of racism. They will
continue to undermine LGBT rights, particularly transgender
peoples’. They will continue to destroy our economy with reckless
tax cuts. If not via legislation, then via executive action.

And forget our government taking normal action on necessary things
like funding infrastructure, improving healthcare, setting reasonable
foreign policy. Gridlock is better than active harm, but the best we
have to hope for is gridlock.

That’s normal politics. It could get much worse. Trump is
entirely unpredictable. It seems quite likely he will draw a page from
the Putin playbook and start a war next year to help galvanize support
for his re-election. Maybe Iran, Venezuela, Yemen. Maybe some
"shithole" country he decides to attack. Nothing will stand
in his way of creating a war.

Even that’s somewhat normal by American experience (see: 2003 in
Iraq). The scariest thing to me is the rising fascism in American
political rhetoric. The increasing appeals to violence. The demonizing
of journalism. The frighteningly aggressive rhetoric of Trump’s
rallies. The gun and bomb attacks by brownshirts. I was genuinely
afraid the 2018 elections would be marred by some violent event, a
mass shooting at a polling place or something. I’m glad I was wrong.
I’m not going to be any less worried about that after two more years
of Trump.

The Ceptics travel adapters are good
hardware for American world travellers. They combine a USB charger
with a passive plug adapter for AC. Carrying one of those is enough
for me for a multi-week vacation, providing plenty of charging for my
laptop, phone, tablet, etc. No need for extra chargers or adapters.
They come in different models for European, Australian, UK, etc
sockets. They also make a universal adapter
kit but it’s a lot bulkier.

You’d think a passive AC adapter would be a simple thing but a
lot of them suck. Ceptics’ solution makes for a plug that sockets
reliably and firmly. And it has a reasonable workaround for
polarization and universal 3 prong grounding. You may not get a true
third wire for ground (ie, the Type C European plug is only 2 prong)
but at least your laptop charger will physically plug in and
function.

The Ceptics’ USB charging works well. USB charger quality varies
greatly. I can’t really judge what’s inside the Ceptics
charger except to say that it never gets warm and seems to provide the
right magic
signals to charge my iPad quickly.

For the past 4+ years I’ve played a lot of League of Legends and
written about it here. Last week I quit entirely; no longer playing
the game, unsubscribed from all the reddits, not watching the
broadcasts. I’m still running Logs
of Lag but I’ve added a new link to the page that I suspect Riot
Games will not be happy with.

Video game culture in America has a huge problem of sexism and
racism. Tech companies often have sexism and racism too. But I’d
somehow hoped that Riot Games was better. The individuals I know there
are decent people. But the company culture created by the founders
Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck is disgusting and childish. I want
nothing to do with it.